Francis Y. Yao, Stefan Breitenstein, Christoph E. Broelsch, Jean‐Francois Dufour, Morris Sherman – 16 May 2011

Kwang‐Woong Lee, Seong Hoon Kim, Sung‐Sik Han, Young‐Kyu Kim, Seong Yeon Cho, Tae You, Sang‐Jae Park – 16 May 2011 – Over a period of 2 years, we used an upper midline incision (UMI) without laparoscopic assistance in 143 consecutive living donor partial hepatectomy (LDPH) procedures, regardless of the graft type or the donor age, sex, body mass index, or body shape. Here we report surgical recommendations based on our experience with the use of UMIs in this context.

Javier Vaquero, Jean S. Campbell, Jamil Haque, Ryan S. McMahan, Kimberly J. Riehle, Renay L. Bauer, Nelson Fausto – 13 May 2011 – Partial hepatectomy (PH) consistently results in an early increase of circulating interleukin‐6 (IL‐6), which is thought to play a major role in liver regeneration. Activation of this cytokine after PH requires the adaptor protein, MyD88, but the specific MyD88‐related receptors involved remain unidentified. It is also unknown whether the magnitude of IL‐6 elevation determines the extent of subsequent hepatocyte proliferation.

Yanfei Chen, Fengling Yang, Haifeng Lu, Baohong Wang, Yunbo Chen, Dajiang Lei, Yuezhu Wang, Baoli Zhu, Lanjuan Li – 13 May 2011 – Liver cirrhosis is the pathologic end stage of chronic liver disease. Increasing evidence suggests that gut flora is implicated in the pathogenesis of liver cirrhosis complications. The aim of this study was to characterize the fecal microbial community in patients with liver cirrhosis in comparison with healthy individuals. We recruited 36 patients with liver cirrhosis and 24 healthy controls.

Jeoffrey N.L. Schouten, Juan C. Garcia‐Pagan, Dominique C. Valla, Harry L.A. Janssen – 13 May 2011 – Idiopathic noncirrhotic portal hypertension (INCPH) is characterized by an increased portal venous pressure gradient in the absence of a known cause of liver disease and portal vein thrombosis. In contrast to the high prevalence of this disorder in India, INCPH is a rare disease in the Western world. The etiology of INCPH can be divided in five categories: chronic infections, exposure to medication or toxins, thrombophilia, immunological disorders, and genetic disorders.

Jingmin Shu, Betsy T. Kren, Zhilian Xia, Phillip Y.‐P. Wong, Lihua Li, Eric A. Hanse, Michael X. Min, Bingshan Li, Jeffrey H. Albrecht, Yan Zeng, Subbaya Subramanian, Clifford J. Steer – 13 May 2011 – The liver is one of the few organs that have the capacity to regenerate in response to injury. We carried out genomewide microRNA (miRNA) microarray studies during liver regeneration in rats after 70% partial hepatectomy (PH) at early and mid time points to more thoroughly understand their role. At 3, 12, and 18 hours post‐PH ∼40% of the miRNAs tested were up‐regulated.

Haruhiko Yoshida, Yasushi Shiratori, Masatoshi Kudo, Shuichiro Shiina, Toshihiko Mizuta, Masamichi Kojiro, Kyosuke Yamamoto, Yukihiro Koike, Kenichi Saito, Nozomu Koyanagi, Takao Kawabe, Seiji Kawazoe, Haruhiko Kobashi, Hiroshi Kasugai, Yukio Osaki, Yasuyuki Araki, Namiki Izumi, Hiroko Oka, Kunihiko Tsuji, Joji Toyota, Toshihito Seki, Toshiya Osawa, Naohiko Masaki, Masao Ichinose, Masataka Seike, Akihisa Ishikawa, Yoshiyuki Ueno, Kazumi Tagawa, Ryoko Kuromatsu, Shotaro Sakisaka, Hiroshi Ikeda, Hidekatsu Kuroda, Hiroyuki Kokuryu, Tatsuya Yamashita, Isao Sakaida, Tetsuo Katamoto, Kentaro Kiku

Chih‐Wen Lin, Wendy M. Mars, Shirish Paranjpe, Shashikiran Donthamsetty, Vishakha S. Bhave, Liang‐I Kang, Anne Orr, William C. Bowen, Aaron W. Bell, George K. Michalopoulos – 13 May 2011 – Glypican 3 (GPC3) is a family of glycosylphosphatidylinositol‐anchored, cell‐surface heparan sulfate proteoglycans. Loss‐of‐function mutations of GPC3 cause Simpson‐Golabi‐Behmel syndrome characterized by overgrowth of multiple organs, including liver.

Michael K. Connolly, Diego Ayo, Ashim Malhotra, Michael Hackman, Andrea S. Bedrosian, Junaid Ibrahim, Napoleon E. Cieza‐Rubio, Andrew H. Nguyen, Justin R. Henning, Monica Dorvil‐Castro, H. Leon Pachter, George Miller – 13 May 2011 – Acetaminophen (APAP) overdose is one of the most frequent causes of acute liver failure in the United States and is primarily mediated by toxic metabolites that accumulate in the liver upon depletion of glutathione stores.

Georgios N. Kalambokis, Athanasia Mouzaki, Maria Rodi, Konstantinos Pappas, Epameinondas V. Tsianos – 12 May 2011